A description of, and excerpts from the memoir 'Sunday's Child'. This is the inspiring, true tale of a little girl struggling to rise above appalling living conditions, poverty, violence and abuse. You'll also find other, more general stuff about books, writing, magazines, blogging and the news.

Blurb

In a crisis torn, South American country, only little Ann's faith, her determination, and one young woman could help keep her dreams of escape alive.

How To Get Some Perspective in Your Life

A discussion of some important facts of life which we allow ourselves to forget.

In our world of Internet and Space travel, it’s difficult to keep our lives and priorities in perspective. It has been said that one picture is worth a thousand words, so I’ve abandoned my plan to write about how viewing life from a different perspective can give us a twisted view of reality.

I’ve decided instead, to illustrate using pictures, how easy it is to lose sight of where our lives should be and what attitudes we should hold fast. If we take the reality of our individual lives and adapt it to the humdrum of what society would have us be, we could end up having very distorted and misconstrued ideas of what is honest, good and important in the journey of our time on earth.

Look at these pictures taken from awkward perspectives. Their realities have been distorted to become something totally different.

All pictures are with express permission of Ahmad Anvari.

Pulling up the moon? Sometimes we take on tasks which in reality are too heavy for us to carry. Let’s keep our work load practical and sustainable. Burning out like an overused, neglected candle leaves us unable to serve anyone in the end.

Where is her head? Use your head when you feel like you’re being swept away by the tides of materialistic fortune and fickle fame. These things surround us everyday, enticing us to believe that if we ourselves could be surrounded by an entourage of false friends, we would be happy as well.

It's very easy to fall over when your foundation is not built on a solid, moral value base.

Grab every opportunity to show love to the people who matter in your life. It makes no sense to wait for special occasions.

Stretch as far as you can to help out those in need.

Pick up every opportunity to be childlike, funny and spontaneous, even if others think that you’re silly and immature.

Dwelling in the past and on mistakes you’ve made bends you out of joint and renders you unable to enjoy the pleasures of right now.

Face up to your fears. Look at them in the eyes and take them on. This is the only way to discard what could otherwise debilitate you.

There’ll always those who will try to take your mind off your goals. It’s enabling for some people to watch others wallow in their low expectations of their lives. Having you at the bottom gives them a reason for not trying to get ahead themselves. Give them the elbow and stay as far away as possible.

Love life and take part in physical events. It’s surprising how much stress is expelled by 10 minutes of brisk walking. Try it. Leave that computer now and then and release stress in physical ways.

Keep your light shining. It’s not okay to let it go out for even a second, for in that moment, a loved one drifting astray may need your light to guide them back home.

Let us remember, while we laugh at these pictures, that sometimes when we’re certain we’re right and someone else is wrong, it may just be because we’re both looking at that particular situation from different angles.

What we therefore see, are imperfect parts of a whole. What we perceive with our own eyes is not necessarily the truth. It could just be that our vision is coloured by the very individual glasses that we insist on wearing. Maybe life is not as bad as it seems, perhaps if we take off the glasses of misery and don the rose coloured pair, our outlook may be a lot more positive.

And how could ‘positive’ hurt?

Let’s try to remember to file the basic important factors of our lives into the correct perspective. In today’s society where celebrity status is craved after, and riches is the pinnacle of perfection, let’s decide that our perspective will remain focused on the ideals, beliefs and people who really matter.

Let’s decide that our perspective will always be founded not on what society thinks we should aim for, but what our life has taught us that we need.

Let the angle of the pictures we take be the one that truthfully reflects reality.

I know, I did say I would use pictures, not words. I failed.

Quite publicly and miserably.

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